The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1887-07-15
YsLETA'S DISTINCTION.
It Claims to be the Scene of the First
White Settlement.
Especial Correspondence

It Claims to be the Scene of the First
White Settlement.
Especial Correspondence
Ell PAso, Tex, July l.
While the polemic antiquariaas of Santa Fe,
N M., and San Augustine, Fla, are wrangling
over rival claims to the first white settlement
in the United States would call attention 10
the fact that the honor belongs to Ysleta,
quaint, queer little town, nine miles from Ell
Paso as the crow flies. Away back, when
the dark ages were melting into very un-
certain daszsA in 1885, to he accurate, an ad-
venturous band of Spaniards found their way
somehow up through the rock ribbed passes
and over the desolate mesas, and built q
mission church there. 1t was q fashion of
these Spaniards, not goneout OF date yet by
the way, TO punctuate the record of their
mfsdeeds with churches, and they must have
been hardy fellows, for it seems that they
pressed the natives into service and built this
one good and strong. with stons walls ten
feet thick. And so it stands, after all these
800 years, the only monument of the day. Their
glittering casques came winding up the valley,
and they took the land in the name of God
and Of CASTLE.
The old church lifts itself NOWADAYS above
struggling adobe village of some $500 souls.
mainly Indians and Mexicans. The low
''jacals," or dugout houses, with mud roofs.
give it a fictitious height, but Judge its par
apet to be not more than twenty feet above
the ground 1t is i'll state of good preser-
walton. The ten foot walls have worn down
to less than six, but they are firm. It makes
one feel how short life is to think that the
slow erosion Of the elements planed Off these
four feet of granite rock, grain by grain, but
the tread of countless worshipers has car
ried away the threshold altogether and left
nothing but ragged fragment at either side
to show that it once was there.
AT one corner OF the edifce is a low. rectan-
gular tower, with open sides. There is some
thing distinctly Moorish in its suggestion, and
inside a bell is still hung, and still rings for
service every night. The sockets in which its
axle turns are worn into long grooves. and
the tower itself seems on the point of topulinp
over; yet in the recent earthquake, that fairly
shook the Mexicanssout of their adobes. not a
handful of rock fell from it, But it has seen
so many earthquakes III its time that it posi-
bly, has private understanding with them.
At night time, at intervals of q week or
two, this curious structure is the background
for an extraordinary ceremony. At the
ringing OF the bell, just at deep dusk, tine In
dians steal from their "jacals" and collect be-
fore the door. A fire is lighted in the open
space and casts a Pickering and spectral illu
mlnation over the Masonic walls and circle of
superstitious faces, and all the while the bell
is throbbing, slowly, like dying pulse, ND in
the old square tower. Suddenly some one
starts chant It is not in words, not in any
language: the Indians do not understand it
themselves; it IS simply wild wall Of sound,
inexpensive and yet full of suggestion-as
sad as the night wind. Gradually the crowd
catch the refrain. The listener is sensible of
a curious effect; he feels as If he were being
mesn,erized. There is nothing human about
it, and imperceptibly it swels and wells and
grows fierce and rapid, and before one is half
aware Of the transition it Is an uncauny
pecan, echoing to the very hills. Meantime
the tolling has grown swift and tumultuous.
the fire, on which fresh brush is heaped.
leaps up in fantastic harmony, ami a new
sound breaks out. 1t is the rapid beating of
native drum, and falls with startling effect
upon the ear. The drum itself is like the TOM
tom of East India, a sheepskin head stretched
over a kettle shaped wicker body. and the
drummer sways to and fro with sharp ges
ticulations as he brandishes his sticks. By
this time the music has grown into o pande-
monium, and yet certain inexplicable
rhythm, impossible to describe in words. is
through it.
The circle of faces, stolid enough at first.
begins to break and twaver The features
are convulsed with excitement, and at last
with common motion, score of the natives
plunge into the open space and begin an
absolutely indeserjbable dance No yoo4ioo
orgie in the cypress swamps of Alabama ever
paralleled it. The dancers are I'm sort of
frenzy, and, still chanting the ear stabbine
and unearthly melody, whirl leap and
writhe like dervishes of Algiers, A dozen
squaws join them. Their movements are
still more curious, and consist simply OF an
upward leap, from which they alight squarely
on their heels, the body stiff and rigid. Il
jars ones very spine to even look at them,
but they don't seem to mind It, The hands.
while this Is going on, are held clenchetl at
the sides, and their features work like those
of an epileptic Indeed, it is no infreauent
thing for one Of them to fall, shricking and
foaming In at. Those who do not tai,tici-
pate are in a state of frantic but suppressed
excitement. Their eyes glitter; the chant
has become scream; they pant and tremble
and gasp.
When the eerie spectacle is at its height.
OAO UoASkhS AAttIlk ilk0 y DnAflIaS-
magoria before the flames. the bell changing
aud the drum beating its satanictatt %, a dis
charge Of firearms is heard frem fhe out
skirts of the crowd, and instassly. as if by
necromancy, everything ceases. The sudden
cessation makes one fairly gii,iy The
dancers stink silently away into the dark.
the fire is hastily stamped out the crowd
disperses on the thought, and before thu last
reyerberations of the song, il song it might
be called, have died away the place il .ie-
serted No trick change was ever made
upon the spectacular stage more suddenly.
And what does ii all means / confess
frankly don't know. II seemed 10 me that
there were artieulate pauses in the chant that
might have once stood for words-worSs for
gotten and grown meaningless in the lapse of
years, but am not sure. At any eyent it il
the remnant of some religious ceremony, the
significance Of which has been lost and onlya
grotesque semhlanee of its form retained.
Forms are always the last to die. The
Indians do not know. Il has been handed
down TO them from time out Of mind untfl
its rites are interviewer in their natures The
old church could read the riddle, perhaps.
but Its only tongue hangs in the battered
Spanish bell, and that tells different tale to
each who harks EDGAR T. VANCE.
He Had "Figured 1t Out.'